Safety vests or harnesses which are used by persons engaged in an activity where there is the possibility of an accidental fall, such as, for example, when the person is working on a scaffold or walking on beams of highrise construction buildings, are known. One such harness may be found described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,699,284 issued Jan. 11, 1955 to Rose in which the impact exerted on the body of the worker as the result of the fall being stopped by a cable connecting the harness to an attachment point, is taken at specific locations of the body, such as the torso and the waist. One such safety and rescue vest may also be found in U.S. Pat. No. 3,701,395 issued Oct. 31, 1972 to Theobald in which the impact is taken by the side connections of the straps to the garment. In this patent, leg straps are also provided but they are also connected to the side connections. Hence, the impact of a fall is static and no means are provided to reduce the effect of a sudden stop.
Therefore, the harnesses and the safety vests of the prior art do not provide a dynamic stop and do not allow a prolonged suspension of the user after the fall, the forces applied on the torso or waist of the worker resulting very often in internal injury (thoracic, spinal) or asphyxiation.